Newsgroups: soc.college
Subject: CODOH's paid advertisements: Michigan State (1/4)
Summary: Letters to the editor address CODOH's advertisement regarding
the Holocaust Memorial museum in Washington, D.C.
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Distribution: world
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac
Keywords: CODOH
Archive/File: orgs/american/codoh/university.response msu.001
Last-Modified: 1993/10/24
_The State News_ of Michigan State University
Wednesday, October 20, 1993
ADVERTISEMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED, PUBLISHED
editorial by Donald Gochberg, Professor of English
It is unfortunate that you printed a prominent advertisement
in The State News on Oct. 15. ["A Revisionist's View of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C." by the Committe for Open
Debate On the Holocaust - CODOH]
Was anyone on your news and opinion staff aware of the
malicious lie printed in the ad? It seeks to cast doubt on the very
historical existence of one of the great tragidies of modern Western
civilization. Under the rather transparent veil of promoting "a free
exchange of ideas about the Holocaust story," it insinuates a
conspiracy of "academic bureaucrats, career-driven professors and an
opulent Holocaust Lobby" who wish to keep the truth hidden.
Now, since the Holocaust is one of the most well-documented
disasters in history with many thousands of witnesses and survivors,
endless paper documentation (including trial transcripts) and film
records from all sides in the European sector of World War II, we can
only assume the sponsors of such an ad are either lunatics or
international spreaders of malicious falsehoods for their own
purposes.
Please understand, I believe in free and open discussion of
all public issues--even, for example, on such sensitive and difficult
topics as the current debates on abortion. You have no obligation,
however, to accept an advertisement for that which is knowingly false
and malicious.
Let me give you an analogous example. Would you accept an ad
which stated that the very historical existence of racial slavery in
this country was open to "a free exchange of ideas" and that a
conspiracy existed to prevent that "free exchange" made up of
"academic bureaucrats, career-driven professors and an opulent Civil
Rights lobby" who wished only to promote their own affirmative action
programs and did not wish the truth to be know about the fact that
slavery may never have existed here? The ad would conclude, as this
one did, with an appeal for funds so that further "open debate" about
the existence of slavery could be continued.
I suspect you would reject the ad, laughing it away as a
ridiculous and obviously malicious falsehood. In what way is last
Friday's ad about the "Holocaust story" different in kind?
Followups directed to alt.revisionism.

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.